Champions League Round of 16 Against Bayern

“Bayern are a pretty tough opponent, one of the favourites of the entire tournament. But in this phase you can’t be too picky. If you want to even think about winning the Champions League, you’ll need to be able to deal with the strongest of opponents in the elimination phase,” said Petr who had found out about the draw result upon returning to the changing rooms after practice.

“We’ve got enough time to prepare for the Bayern game. We need to find a way to cope with them. As I’ve already said, it’s one of the contenders, but we’re striving for success and want to get as far as possible,” stated Petr.

He has relatively fresh experience with Bayern as the Gunners faced them during the group stage of Champions League last season. That time, they won 2-0 at home and suffered a heavy 1-5 loss away. “They were two totally different games. The first one we simply had to win in order to avoid losing our qualification chances. Were were under pressure but made it in the end. We totally ruined the second game. We need to learn from that,” admitted Petr.

“We’ve got relatively fresh experience with them. Bayern may have changed managers last summer and so their game might have changed slightly as well, but it’s still a very dangerous team with fantastic players,” he added.

Petr hadn’t wished for any particular opponent during the draw. “I just didn’t want to face Juventus. They’re doing great at the moment, it’s an experienced tournament team and somehow I thought I wouldn’t mind avoiding them just for the moment,” he revealed.